The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Weaving Tutorials and Projects

When I was a in Brownies I got my weaving badge by making a wee pot holder on a hand-held plastic loom.  But one potholder was not enough.  Take it from me, weaving is addictive.  Here are some tutorials to get you started on this craft without having to invest in costly looms.

 
Martha Stewart shares some general tips on weaving with hand held looms.

 
Once you have the basics under your belt, make these sweet woven sachets with Martha Stewart's help.

 
Make a face cloth and tissue box cover with a weaving tutorial from Martha Stewart.

 
Martha even shares how to make woven baby booties and a baby block.

 
Make a sophisticated looking basket weave pillow by weaving grosgrain ribbon with this Martha Stewart tutorial and video.

Alphamom shared a way to re-use old t-shirts by weaving them into a pillow with this tutorial.

Eva Foreva shared how she made her own loom out of an old picture frame and nails.  She then went on to make a zippered pouch with her woven fabric.

Arounna Khounnoraj of bookhou.com guest blogged at Poppytalk and shared how she too made a picture frame and nail loom, but she used selvedges from leftover sewing projects to make a trivet.

Rhonda at Dollar Store Crafts shared how to make super cheap loom out of drinking straws.

Or try making a loom out of cardboard with this how-to from 52 Crafts in 52 Weeks.

Another affordable loom option that you can easily make for yourself is a peg loom. You can make anything from scarves to rag rugs on this type of loom.  This style of weaving is so easy and it is is a great way to use up scrap yarn and fabric.  Learn how to make the loom itself and then how to weave on it, with the following video.

 

Ellen from the blog the Long Thread and author of the book 1, 2, 3 Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Sewing Projects guest blogged at Skip to My Lou and demonstrated how to make absolutely miniature weaving for jewellery projects.  This technique would also work well if you are a doll maker and want to make mini-weaving for costumes or accessories.

 
The Family Fun website shared a tutorial that used a hula hoop and old t-shirts to make a rug.  Never mind the kids - I would totally make this.

My Kids Make shared a tutorial to re-use wrapping paper to make a woven paper basket.

 
For the slightly more grown up version of the woven paper basket idea, Craft shared a tutorial from Jane Patrick who wove old maps into a stunning waster paper basket.

 
And this weaving project is definitely for grown-ups only, weave wood together to create a wooden wall or headboard with HGTV.

Amy Heller shared a tutorial on Crate Paper Blog for weaving paper together to make woven monogram place cards.

 
Jera from Quilting in the Rain shared a tutorial on the Moda Bakeshop blog to help you to make a woven jelly roll rug.

To be honest, I'm not sure why weaving isn't more popular.  It's easy.  It's environmentally friendly.  It's relaxing.  It's beautiful. And it can be done using cheaply handmade looms.  What's not to like? 

Giant Spools of Thread or The Way to Get Noticed at an Exhibition

Back in the spring I was trying to figure out how to make my booth at the Creativ Festival in Toronto really stand out.  My dad and I had a discussion on the matter that went something like this:

Myself:  I really don't just want a table with stuff on it in my booth.  I really want to catch people's eye so they take a second look.

My Dad:  Well, you also want something that is easy to move and transport.  (Dad the Practical comes to the rescue with that suggestion).

Myself:  Right, well I was going to try and make my booth look like a living room.

Dad:  That won't fit in the truck.

Myself:  Oh yeah.  Let me think about it.

(Myself has a shower.  Myself always gets the best ideas in the shower)

Myself:  Dad, I just had an idea to create some giant spools of thread to use as plinths to display my dolls (drip, drip goes my hair).

Dad:  That would work.  We could build them out of sono-tubes (said without blinking and eye or raising an eyebrow - my dad and I think in the same sort of weird way).

So off we go to the building centre to buy sono-tubes.  We cut them up into artistically pleasing lengths.  I buy Dad a new router bit to make the wooden tops and bottoms.  Then I depart Canada to return to my my hubby and home in England.

The giant thread spool dialogue continues via overseas telecommunications.  The sono-tubes get painted and the wooden tops and bottoms get made, by my dad.

Then, I arrive back in Canada just prior to the exhibition to apply large scale yarn to the tubes and help Dad to attach the wooden tops and bottoms.  And dudes, those humble sono-tubes so looked like huge spools of thread.

My jumbo sized sewing display made people stop and comment even when we were carrying them in the hallways - they were pretty eye catching.  It also made me feel like I was a giant's assistant or something with one of those babies slung over my shoulder!

 

Luckily my super-sized spools did not detract from my tiny dolls.  All my dolls had so many compliments that they are all going to have egos the size of the spools they're sitting on, I tell ya, there is just no living with these wee cloth girls at the moment!

I even had a fun way for people to picture themselves as a doll maker.

Here's Ann Campbell, my mum's best friend and my adopted "Auntie Ann" showing how its done.

My friend Jen Edgar (Ann's daughter, actually) of Eucalan fame lent me her support (and her head).  If you missed my free Eucalan Bottle Doll Tutorial the first time, you can check it out by clicking the link.

I even met up with someone I haven't seen in a long time.  Stephanie Dixon, beader, teacher, blogger and bling-maker was teaching at the Creativ Festival.  I first met Stephanie when she was working at York University while I was taking my degeree in Theatre Design.  Now, Stephanie is one of only 35 people worldwide who represent Swarovski crystal as an "Ambassador".  I wonder if she gets diplomatic ammunity?  Ya think?  The right to bling at will, perhaps?

Stephanie posed with my mum Kitty Babcock and I in the booth. 

I had the good fortune to meet a whole lot of super cool people the weekend of the Creativ Festival.  Thank you to everyone who came, looked at dolls, bought patterns, took classes and made me feel so welcome.

But the biggest thanks must go to the two biggest rockstars I know - my mum and dad. 

Dad made giant thread spools, packed the truck, stood in the booth, sold patterns, fetched food and never complained.

Mum helped me look up prices, find flooring, made up kits, priced kits, drove the truck, stood in the booth, talked to endless people, sold patterns and never complained.

If we got to choose our parents, I'd definitely choose the ones I already have.  You couldn't ask for more support, humour and love. Thank you Mum and Dad.  I will forever be your groupie, cause I don't think there is anyone else with more star-quality than you!

PS.  If you live near Southwestern Ontario and want some giant thread spool plinths for use at an exhibition or for your shop window, I'm selling mine.  Just email me for more details.  We'll even deliver if you are in the Ingersoll, Woodstock, or London Ontario area. 

Freebie Friday - Designing Your Own Fabric Tutorials

With the advent of online services such as Spoonflower, anyone can design their own fabric.  Here are a few tutorials to help you get started as a fabric designer.

One of my favourite bloggers and writers Betz White shares her process for fabric design from sketching on paper to tracing over the design in Adobe Illustrator .

True Up featured an interview with Jay McCarroll who designs fabric for Habitat and he shared how he uses the humble paint chip card to choose his palette and then sketches, scans and tweaks his designs.

In the following video Jay shares why he makes fabric.  It will make you want to make fabric too:

 

Liesl Gibbons shared her process of sketching and then altering in Adobe Photoshopto design fabric on Burdastyle.

Heather Ross shared her fabric design process and why she prefers Photoshop to Illustrator.

If you don't have a fancy program like Illustrator or Photoshop, you can still design fabric using just your computer scanner.  This video from Spoonflower shows you how:

 

The website, Picnik, that the Spoonflower video mentions is a fabulous site that I use regularly.  I first came across Picnik when I saw a tutorial for creating your own printables on I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.  I paid for the premium service and have never once regretted it, but even the basic, free version of Picnik is fantastic, so check it out by clicking the link.

Erja Hirvi shares her fabric design process and inspiration on the Marimekko Blog.

Fabric designer Julia shared a wonderful tutorial on Design Sponge about how to figure out repeats for a fabric design.

Lizzie House shared her checklist for building a fabric design collection on the Spoonflower blog.

Personally, I found all these tutorials really interesting, but I am one of those people who buys a book about a subject, reads it cover to cover and then I'm off and running.  I am thinking that this books looks very promising - A Field Guide to Fabric Design: Design, Print & Sell Your Own Fabric; Traditional & Digital Techniques; For Quilting, Home Dec & Apparel. 

Who knew designing fabric was so accessible, huh?

Wordy Wednesday: Extreme Doll Making with a Choral Twist

Normally, Wednesday is for lovely pictures and no words, but today I decided I wanted to be verbose. It's my blog so I'll do what I wanna.

This Wordy Wednesday is brought to you from Southwestern Ontario where I am currently visiting my parental units and preparing for the Creativ Festival where I will be both exhibiting (in booth 202) and teaching two classes (the Green Man and Dive Into a Book).

In between prepping for my classes, pricing up patterns and making giant spools of thread (yes, you read that right, giant spools of thread - you'll have to come to the show to see what I mean) I've also managed to fit in a bit of Extreme Doll Making. For those of you who are new to my blog, Extreme Doll Making is when I make dolls in unlikely and public places.

This time I made dolls while sitting amongst a choir, namely the Embro Thistle Singers. The vocally delightful group includes from left to right, front row Bonnie, Attie, Elaine, Moi, Kathy, Kay and Carolin (who I have a hard time, calling by her first name because she is the mum of one of my school friends) and in the back row we have the masculine musicians, from left to right John, Glen, Harold, Damon, Harvey, Gary and Doug. Behind the camera is my mum, Kitty Babcock the conductor of this group of gifted virtuosos. If you want to get an earful of some fantastic music you can hear the Embro Thistle Singers at Brooksdale United Church, Ontario for their anniversary service on November 6th, 2011.

So while I'm busy at the Creativ Festival, why not try a spot of Extreme Doll Making yourself. What group of people can you convince to gather round you while you make cloth dolls? If you've got your own blog, blog about it and let me know, or send me photos at colleenbabcock@uwclub.net and I'll tell the world about the extremes you go to in the name of doll making.

The Stuff I Learned at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace

There are many learning experiences to be taken away from doing a large craft and stitch exhibition like the Knitting & Stitching Show where I was exhibiting from October 6-9th along with Ray Slater, Cassie Rafferty, Jan Horrox and Jennie Camohon (I'm not sure I've spelled Jennie's surname correctly, so that's one thing I DIDN'T learn, sorry Jennie). Here's what I learned:

1. You can fit 8 of my dolls in one suitcase if you are really determined. Then your best friend will sweep in and say that she'll give you a ride to Alexandra Palace and save you lugging the suitcase on the tube. However, your efforts will not have been wasted as you can still feel smug about your packing skills when the queue at the loading bays is huge and you can just park and wheel your dolls into the exhibition space. Still feeling smug about that one.

2. Standing on your feet all day is not nearly so bad when you get to talk to some really fun people all day who instead of giving you the raised eyebrow look when you tell them what you do, actually think you're cool because you make little people out of cloth. The raised eyebrow thing actually amuses me, but sometimes it's nice for people to just think you're cool. That doesn't happen to me often.

3. Having someone in the booth who does the same thing as you (that is, make little people out of cloth) is pretty cool too. Plus, the extra help means you can actually go to the loo. Very important factor, that one. In between loo breaks you can chat about life, liberty and the pursuit of the perfect doll stuffing technique. Ray Slater and I posed for our close up during a quiet moment (not too many of those!).

If you don't already know Ray,  she is a cloth doll teacher and author of Cloth Dolls for Textile Artists

4. If you really want to take a photo of fantastic doll makers and their dolls in their publisher's booth (namely Patti Culea and Barbara Willis), you will always forget to take out the camera that you brought expressly for this purpose. Then you will go home and be mad at yourself for being so dopey. But you will feel so much better knowing that at least there is a photo of them on the Craftside blog.

5. You will meet fantastic people who are interested in making dolls, taking workshops and generally be creative so that your creative fires are fuelled once again.

So now I'm really excited about exhibiting at the Creativ Festival this coming weekend October 21-23rd, 2011. I'll be in booth 202 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building.

Come and say hi. Remind me to take pictures when you see me.

Apparently, I'm rubbish at that because all the photos of the Knitting and Stitch Show were taken by friend Rebecca Ward, best friend, photographer, booth helper-outer (just invented a new title there) and general all round fabulous person. You should check out her blog, Heart Shaped Pebbles, she's a good person to know and not just because she'll stand in a booth for hours on end.

Freebie Friday - Creating Custom Stamp Tutorials

Creating your own stamps doesn't need to be high-tech or expensive. You can use simple materials to create one of a kind stamps to then make one of a kind fabric. Here are some simple projects to get you started on creating your own stamps.

Make a block print pencil bag by creating a stamp out of Styrofoam (polystyrene) trays to print on burlap with a tutorial from Factory Direct Craft Blog.

Kelly Wilkinson at Make, Grow, Gather shared a simple way to make stamps out of adhesive foam sheets.

To stamp a slightly distressed image, make a stamp from a champagne cork with Kimminita.

Ellen author of 1, 2, 3 Sew: Build Your Skills with 33 Simple Sewing Projectsguest posted at Indie Fixx and shared a really simple way to stamp tea towels using a stencil brush based on one of the projects from her book.

Learn the basics of carving your own stamps from a tutorial on the blog Punkin Patterns, plus get templates for cars and trucks to carve into stamps.

Craft Leftovers shared a tutorial to make a logo stamp. This would be perfect if you sell things on Etsy. I'm not sure I'd be up to carving out all those teen tiny letters, but the stamped image is really cool.

The Red Kitchen has a tutorial for using an artist's carving block to create custom stamps and showed how you can use them to make custom labels for your handmade items.

Joggles shared a video tutorial on how to carve stamps from Speedy Carve Blocks made by Speedball 6.75. or you can carve erasers:

Crafterella shares a cool way to re-use empty thread spools to make stamps with this tutorial.

Re-use plastic bottle caps by turning them into stamps with some simple puffy paint with a tutorial from Pretty Little Things.

The blog Creature Comforts shared a tutorial to carve erasers into stamps.

Alisa Burke ingeniously used cranberries as a stamp, see how she did it here.

Martha Stewart suggests using salad leaves as a beautiful rose stamps. Sounds weird, but looks marvellous.

If you love the idea of designing and printing your own fabric, then you might enjoy the book, The Printed Pattern: Techniques and Projects for Inspired Printmaking and Surface Design. This book is a really quick read (that is, if you are like me and read a book cover to cover). Created by a mother and daughter team it covers potato printing, lino printing, eraser printing, rubber stamp printing, vintage woodblock printing, stencilling and screenprinting. The projects have a clean, modern feel that is really appealing. The instructions are straight forward with some templates that you can use to recreate the patterns in the book, but with lots of encouragement to try your own designs. This book would be particularly good for people who just want to dabble, but don't want to have to wade through a wordy tome to get started.

Although there are lots of ways to create relatively simple images by carving your own stamps, I am currently lusting after the TERESA COLLINS STAMPMAKER Machine Own Stamp Stencil Kit. With this machine you can make much more complicated images with finer detail. Apparently, you can even make stamps from photographs. You just use your home printer to create images to feed into the machine and it imprints your image onto a pack of gel which hardens into a stamp image. I want one. Badly.

So whether you want to make detailed stamps with a whizz bang machine or are happy stamping with a humble potato, there are lots of ways to make custom stamps. Break out the ink!

Wordless Wednesday- Getting the Show on the Road

Photo credit:  Rebecca Ward, visit Rebecca's blog Heart Shaped Pebbles by clicking the link.

Patchwork Hand Tied Christmas Tree Skirt Tutorial

 
The Mission: To use up as much of the Christmas fabric in my stash as possible.

The Solution: A patchwork Christmas tree skirt.

The Result: Just lovely.

If you are on a mission to use up your festive fabric selection, then whip up this Christmas tree skirt and it should put a dent in your stash.

What you need
• Approx 8 co-ordinating cotton or linen fabrics for the top side of the tree skirt - Please note that amounts of fabric are not given here as you can use any number of different fabrics to make up the tree skirt.
• 1¼ yards (1.25) linen or other 54" (137cm) wide fabric for backing of tree skirt
• Needle-punched cotton batting (wadding) such as Warm & Natural Brand
• Embroidery needle
• Standard sewing equipment such as sewing machine, thread, hand sewing needles, pins, shears etc
• Embroidery floss to match fabrics

General Instructions
Read the instructions through before beginning.

All seam allowances are ¼” (6mm) unless otherwise stated.

Your stitch length should be set to 2-2.5 which is 12-13 stitches per inch. Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of every seam.

Create the Pattern Template

1. This tree skirt is 44" (111.8cm) in diameter. To create a a large enough piece of paper to draw out the pattern template, first tape wrapping paper or brown packing paper together to form a piece of paper approximately 45" square (115cm).

2. Fold the piece of paper in half and then half again.

3. Improvise your own compass by tying a piece of string over 44" (111.8cm)long to a pencil and hold the end. Being careful to hold the string at the 44" (111.8cm) point (or there abouts), hold the string at the folded point of the piece of paper and draw an arch with the pencil from one fold to the next. Make sure the string is taut and the pencil is as straight as possible. The first arch will be the outer edge of the tree skirt.

4. Now draw an arch to be the inner circle of the skirt that will allow the skirt to sit around the tree base. Hold the string attached to the pencil at a point 3" (7.6cm) from the pencil at the folded point of the piece of the paper. Holding the string taut and keeping the pencil straight, draw an arch from one folded edge of the paper to the other.

 

5. Keeping the paper folded, cut along these drawn lines with paper scissors. Unfold the paper and you will have a very large circle.

6. Cut a straight line from the inner circle to the outer edge along one of the creases of the paper, so that the tree skirt can be wrapped around the tree.

 
Piecing Together the Patchwork Top

7. Cut 4¾" (12.1cm) squares from your selection of cotton and linen fabrics for the top of the tree skirt. I needed approximately 101 squares to complete my tree skirt. Make sure that your squares are a square as possible. Use a rotarty cutter and cutting matt if you have one to make this stage quicker and easier.

8. Begin to piece the squares together by sewing the squares into strips, using a ¼" (6mm) seam allowance. Lay the strips over the paper pattern template, side by side, to see how long a strip you will need to cover each area of the tree skirt. As you stitch one square to the next to form a strip, be sure to press the seam allowances open. Once you have a strip long enough to cover the outer edge of the circle start on the strip that will lie next to it.

9. To make sure that you have a pleasing arrangement of colours, lay the squares in the order you will piece them together on top of the pattern template, next to the strip to which it will be sewn.

10. When you have completed sewing together the second strip of squares, pin it to the first strip, making sure it is placed so that the edges of the circle will be covered and so that the seams match. If you have a walking foot for your sewing machine you can skip straight to machine stitching the strips together, but if you don't have a walking foot, first baste the strips together to ensure that the seams stay aligned and then machine sew the strips together. Press the seam allowances open.

11. Continue to assemble strips of squares in this manner and stitch them together until you have assembled enough squares to completely cover the outer edges of the circle template.

 
Assemble the Tree Skirt

12. Use the paper pattern template to cut a piece of needle-punch batting or wadding such as Warm and Natural Brand.

13. Lay the cut out batting (wadding) piece so that it sits flat on the wrong side of the backing fabric. Pin and then hand baste the batting (wadding) to the backing fabric.

14. Cut the backing fabric along the outer circle of the batting (wadding), but do NOT cut out the inner circle or the slit in the backing fabric.

 
15. Place the pieced top of the tree skirt and the backing fabric together with right sides facing, making sure all the edges of cirlce are covered by the pieced top.

 
16. Pin the layers of the skirt together. Lay out the layers so that the pieced top is on the bottom, sitting on a flat surface. Cut the pieced fabric top to the circle shape so it is even with backing fabric and batting (wadding). Do NOT cut out the inner circle or the slit in the tree skirt. By hand, baste the layers together. This is a particularly important step if you do not have a walking foot on your sewing machine.

17. Using pins, mark an opening somewhere on the outer edge of the circle. The opening needs to be about 12" (30.5cm) to give you enough room to turn the tree skirt right side out.

18. When sitting at your sewing machine, place the batting (wadding) side of the tree skirt up, so you can see where the slit and inner circle are positioned. By machine, sew from one side of your marked opening, all the way around the outer circle, along one side of the slit, all around the inner circle and then down the other side of the slit. When you stitch around the inner circle and along each edge of the slit use a ¼" (6mm) seam allowance, but use a ½" (1.3cm) seam allowance when stitching around the outer circle.

 
19. With the tree skirt layers stitched together, cut the backing and top fabrics of the tree skirt along the slit in the batting (wadding) and cut out the inner circle leaving a ¼" (6mm) seam allowance. Clip the curves on the inner circle and trim the corners at the bottom of the slit.

 
20. Trim the batting around the outer circle to ¼" (6mm).

21. Turn the tree skirt right side out through the opening and press. At the opening, turn under the raw edges and press. Pin the opening closed.

22. Top stitch around all edges of the tree skirt, including the outer circle, inner circle and the edges of the slit. When top stitching, stitch ⅛" (3mm) from the edge. You may also find it helpful to change your sewing machine needle to a size 16 jeans needle to ensure that the needle can go through the layers of the tree skirt. When you top stitch the edges you will also be stitching the opening closed.

Hand Tying the Tree Skirt

23. Instead of machine or hand quilting the tree skirt, we are going to hand tie the layers together to keep the layers from shifting. Embroidery floss generally comes in hanks of 6 threads. Thread an embroidery needle with a long piece of two threads of embroidery floss, but don't tie a knot in the end.

24. Starting on the top of the tree skirt, take the needle to the bottom of the tree skirt, at the point where four squares of the patchwork meet. Pull the thread through the tree skirt leaving a tail of about 3" (7.6cm).

 
25. Taking a very small stitch on the bottom of the tree skirt, bring the thread back up almost at the same point you started,where four square corners of the patchwork meet.

 
26. Without cutting the thread, travel to the next join of patchwork squares and repeat the process, by taking the needle down to the bottom of the tree skirt, take a small stitch and come back up, almost at the same point you started,where four square corners of the patchwork meet. Continue in this manner, until you have only just enough thread to form a tail.

 
27. You will now have embroidery thread travelling from one corner of each square to the next.  Using a pair of scissors, snip the embroidery floss at the centre of each square. This will leave you with tails long enough to comfortably tie a reef or square knot at each corner of each square. Tie a reef or square knot and then trim the tails to approximately ¾" (1.9cm). Note:  To tie a reef knot lay the thread right over left and tie and then left over right and then tie. 

 
28. Repeat step 24-27 until you have tied a knot in every corner of every square.

That's your tree skirt finished.

If you are feeling silly, try it on as a poncho. I was personally thinking of starting a new trend. Hey, if Lady Ga-Ga can wear meat as a dress, I can wear a tree skirt as a poncho.  It would be far more festive and all together less smelly.

Freebie Friday - Halloween Tutorials

Halloween is getting to be a bigger and bigger thing over here in the UK.  One day, I might actually get a trick or treater.  In the meantime, I can fulfil my spooky needs with some free Halloween tutorials.

Costumes

 
Make a cute witchy apron for All Hallow's Even with a tutorial from Sew4Home.

 
Make a jewelled spider mask to go with your apron, with the how-to from Sew4Home.

 
Then top it off with a Dead Rose Witch Hat with the free pattern from Sew4Home.

Dolls, Softies and Figures

Make a very simple but effective multi-media Halloween witch doll with a pipe-cleaner armature with a tutorial from Julie Collings on her blog the Adventures of Bluegirl.  This technique could be used for any doll really.

Use clay pots to make a large witch figure with a the how-to from Michaels.  Or make a mummy instead.  Sometimes figures made from pots can look pretty bland but these ones have great personality.

Heather Bailey shared a great tutorial to make a Betty Boo Bat doll and a matching bat couture cape.

Gail, who writes That Artist Woman transforms a plastic pumpkin into characterful jack-o-lanterns with papier mache. 

Doris at the Art Annex shared a tutorial to make paint-headed Halloween characters.

Paint some loo roll tubes or paper towel tubes to look like little monsters with a tutorial from Alisa Burke.

Jennifer Clemen designed a fun stuffed jack-o-lantern softie pattern that was featured on the Fairfield website.  Click on Download PDF at the left to get the pattern.

Connie McBride Johnson designed a free felt ghost and grave Halloween pin doll pattern.

Brenda Sanker has a fun, very primitive Halloween spider tutorial.  Click the link to visit Brenda's blog, the Vintage Polka Dot to get the free Miss E. Spider pattern and other free tutorials. 

Decorations

Make a paper Halloween village out of paper sheet music with a tutorial from Claudine Hellmuth.

 
Make a bat mobile (NOT the kind of Bat Mobile that a caped crusader would use) with a tutorial from Sew4Home.

Halloween Wreaths

Jennie at Craft-o-maniac made a "The Witch Is In" Halloween wreath and shared the how to at her blog.

Jen at Tatertots and Jello made a bat-bedecked, chevron wrapped, glittered Halloween wreath and shared a tutorial.

Here's hoping you have a spook-tacular Halloween!

Meet Ascending in the flesh, or should that be, in the cloth?

I just finished my latest version of my newest cloth doll design "Ascending" just in time to exhibit her at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. 

 
You can see Ascending up close and personal.

 
You can peer at her from every angle.

 
And take in all the tiny details.

 
 
You can ask me questions until you are blue in the face.

 
I promise, I'll rise to the occasion.

You can find me and my dolls, including this latest version of Ascending in the Cloth Dolls UK booth - marked TGD1.

If just looking at this doll is not enough for you, remember that I am teaching Ascending at Blue Haze Arts and Crafts in Chesham, Bucks on Friday November 11th and Saturday November 12th, 2011.  Click the link to find out more about this cloth doll course and to sign up online.  Or call and speak to Hazel at the shop on Tel: 01494 782030 or email: info@blue-haze.co.uk.

 
I'll also be teaching a one day course at Blue Haze in Chesham, to make this fairy bookmark called Dive Into a Book on Sunday November 13th, 2011.  This course is a great taster course for those who would like to dip their toes into cloth doll making, but aren't confident with their skills just yet or for more experienced doll makers who just need more practise needle-sculpting tiny toes.

Click the link to find out more about this one day cloth fairy bookmark course in the UK and to sign up online.  Or call and speak to Hazel at the shop on Tel: 01494 782030 or email: info@blue-haze.co.uk.

 
Before I close the book on this post, I want to remind those people on the other side of the pond that I'll also be teaching Dive Into a Book at the Creativ Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011.  Click the link to learn more about this course or for information on my other Creativ Festival course offering. To register for Creativ Festival classes. Simply click here for pricing info and call 1-800-291-2030 to register.

You can see me and my dolls in booth 202 at the Creativ Festival in Toronto. 

If I don't see you in the flesh at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, I hope to see you at the Creativ Festival in Toronto.